My first rule of blackberry picking is Find the Gigantic Garden Spider. Because, you see, there is always a gigantic garden spider near that little clump of ripe and delicious blackberries, and if I don't find it first I will just end up sticking my hand through its web, and then the spider winds up on my arm or in my hair and then there is the screaming and the flailing and the unpleasantness.

In other garden-related developments, yesterday S came home with a bypass lopper, a bypass pruner, and a trowel. It's a sign of my lingering urban-ness that I think Lopper, Pruner, and Trowel sounds like a law firm.